Did your payday loans cost so much when you repaid one you had to keep on borrowing?
You can get a refund of the interest you paid on unaffordable loans.
It’s easy to ask for a payday loan refund using the free template letters here. The letters work if your payday loans were repaid or you still owe money.
The comments below this article have thousands of stories of the refunds people have got using these letters. It is a great place to ask questions!
Contents
What are “unaffordable” loans?
Was a loan affordable just because you repaid it?
No! If paying a loan left you so broke you had to borrow again – from the same lender or a different one – it was unaffordable!
The regulator says:
“the borrower should be able to make the required repayments without undue difficulty, whilst continuing to meet other debt repayment obligations and reasonable regular outgoings.”
That means a payday loan is only affordable if you repaid it on time and you could still manage to pay your other bills and debts.
Payday loans are meant to solve a short-term problem. If you kept repaying one then getting another loan soon after, the lender should have stopped lending to you.
If the loan was small and it was the first loan or second loan from a lender, the lender may not have realised the loan was unaffordable for you. But it was irresponsible lending to just carry on giving you more loans.
Many lenders ignore obvious signs of problems such as your loans increasing in size, or borrowing again soon after repayment.
How much compensation can you get?
You don’t have to calculate this. Just ask for a refund from the lender and see what you are offered. This is simple and it works well.
The Financial Ombudsman has seen tens of thousands of payday loan affordability complaints.
A typical decision by the Ombudsman is that the payday lender should refund all the interest you paid interest after the third, fourth or fifth loan.
But if your first loan was large, or was rolled over several times you could get a refund from just one loan.
Which lenders can you get refunds from?
You can complain to lenders that are still in business, even if they are no longer lending. These include:
Lending Stream, Cash Converters, CashASAP, Drafty, Dot Dot, Fast Loan Uk, Fernovo, Fund Ourselves, Kabayan, LoanPig, Mr Lender, Moneyboat, MyKredit, My Finance Club, QuidMarket, Savvy, The Money Platform, WageMe, Wizzcash,
See this email list for payday lenders for a longer list and all the contact details to use.
If the lender has gone into administration, including CashForUNow, Piggybank, Ferratum, Oakam, Safetynet Credit, Tappily:
- make a claim to the administrators – there is normally a simple form for you to complete, see the lender’s website for details – but there will be a time limit for doing this.
- you may not get much cash back but this is very easy to do. A balance may be reduced or cleared even if there is no cash to distribute. And if you win the complaint any negative marks on your credit record will be removed.
It is probably too late to make claims to other lenders who gave up years ago, see this list.
For longer-term loans there are better template letters to use on other pages:
- doorstep lenders and guarantor lenders,
- Loans2Go – the worst loans in Britain!
- 118 Money, Likely Loans, Bamboo, car finance, bank loans and other long-term loans.
Do this before, before you send in a complaint
Doing these things now will make your life easier later.
Get a copy of your TransUnion statutory credit report and keep it. After complaints are started, sometimes loans are deleted and you may want the full report if you later have to go to the Ombudsman.
If you still owe money to the lender, read Will an affordability claim hurt my credit record, and other questions. These looks at your options for stopping paying, the effect on your credit record etc.
If the rest of your finances are difficult, look into a Debt Management Plan (DMP) where you make one affordable payment a month to StepChange. This gets you into a safe financial position as these affordability complaints can take a long time to go through at the Ombudsman. Winning a complaint then speeds up the DMP.
Unless you can afford to make this month’s payment without borrowing again, cancel the CPA to the lender at your bank. Otherwise the lender may take the money and you will be in a mess.
If your loan was sold to a debt collector you complain to the original lender. But also tell the debt collector that you are disputing the debt. It is a good idea to carry on making payments to the debt collector if they are affordable.
Start your complaint & get loan details
Find the lender’s email address for complaints from this list.
Put “AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT” as the subject of your email:
You should never have given me these unaffordable loans. Paying you each month left me with too little money so I had to keep borrowing to get through the next month.
You should have realised from the number of times I borrowed that my debt problems were getting worse. It was not responsible to continue to lend to me. [Add more details eg how often you borrowed or rolled loans if you know them, how the amount borrowed generally went up etc]
[Include/change this if your credit record would have shown big problems:] My credit reports would have shown all my other debts and problems including late payments/defaults /CCJs/debt management.]
I am asking you to refund the interest and any charges I paid, plus statutory interest, and to delete any negative information from my credit record.
[delete this sentence if you know what all your loans were.] I know the difficulties your loans have caused me but I no longer have all the loan details. Please send me a list, showing for each loan when it was taken out, how much interest and charges you added, and what I repaid. This will enable me to assess any refund you offer me.
[delete this sentence if none of your loans were sold.]If a loan was later sold to a debt collector, please inform me of the date of sale and the name of the debt collector.
Some ways to improve this
Add any other points that help you describe what happened to you. You don’t need to list the loans – the lenders knows them.
Some examples:
- “I took out another loan with xxxx to pay you.”
- “Sometimes I borrowed to pay the rent and then had to top-up to get money for food.”
- if you weren’t treated fairly while you were borrowing or when you could not make a payment, add a bit about this.
You can attach bank statements if you like, This is a good idea as these show how unaffordable the loans were for you. If you have gambling showing, this helps your complaint, it doesn’t harm it.
I don’t know if many lenders actually read what you send them. I
it’s easy to make these complaints – you don’t need to calculate what refund you should get or quote laws.
Only one loan?
The template refers to multiple loans because that is what normally happens with payday lenders.
When you only had one loan and it was large, read Refunds from large loans and use the template there.
If you only had one loan and it was small, this is going to be a very difficult complaint to win. If you have borrowed once or twice from 5 leaders, that is much more difficult to win an affordability complaint than having 4 or 5 loans from two lenders.
Waiting for a reply from the lender
This email starts your affordability complaint.
They may send the list of loans first and later respond to your complaint. So don’t be surprised if you get sent info on the loans but nothing about your request for a refund.
When you get your loan information, you can send in more details about your complaint if you want. You don’t have to do this, your complaint has already begun and the lender has to reply.
The lender should reply to your complaint within 8 weeks from when you send the email, not when they acknowledge it. Make a note in your diary for 8 weeks time and chase the lender up if you don’t get a reply.
Don’t be surprised if you have to wait until the end of the 8 weeks to get response – this is common.
Send your bank statements or other information?
Some lenders ask you to send them a copy of your credit record, payslips or bank statements.
Credit record – the lender can check your credit record themselves if they want. But you should download a copy of your credit record asap as the Ombudsman will ask for it. Don’t put this off, the sooner you get a report downloaded, the further back it goes which is good.
Don’t send payslips – they won’t help an affordability complaint and the ombudsman never asks for them.
It is a good idea to send bank statements. But think twice about the cost of copying and postage if there are a lot. Some lenders seem to ignore them if you do send them.
Again this is a good point to get those bank statements even if you do not want to send them as they will help an Ombudsman claim a lot. You can get them going back at least 6 years even if the account has been closed.
Lender says No or makes a poor offer
If the lender rejects your complaint or offers you a small amount, don’t be depressed. You may still have a very good case!
It is easy and free to send your case to the Financial Ombudsman where many thousands of people have won their payday loan complaints, despite being rejected by the lender.
Give up?
Some lenders try to make your case sound bad when it isn’t. People have had large amounts refunded after a complete rejection!
Just ignore any of the following comments, they do not mean you have a weak case:
- they relied on your loan applications and you didn’t give accurate facts – see Lender says I lied for more about this;
- you repaid some loans early – this doesn’t prove the loans were affordable, just that you were trying to save interest;
- your borrowing didn’t go up every time – irrelevant, what matters is that you kept borrowing;
- you had a good enough credit score or they didn’t legally have to check your credit record – if you only had one or two small loans that is true. But if the loans were large or you kept borrowing, they should have looked more closely;
- your loans are over 6 years old – the Ombudsman will look at these even if the lender says they won’t!
A good enough case to go to the Ombudsman?
If you don’t know what to do, ask in the comments below this article. Accepting an offer settles your whole complaint – you can’t change your mind later.
Don’t worry that you will lose a small offer by going to the Ombudsman – this doesn’t happen.
Some points to think about:
- if you are offered a refund on only a few loans, don’t accept it if you think the lender should have realised a lot of the other loans were unaffordable;
- an offer to write off your current balance may sound convenient … but it may be very poor if you should get a refund as well;
- if getting defaults or late payments removed from your credit record is important to you, are you happy with what the lender is proposing to do? Don’t assume your credit record will be cleared if the lender didn’t mention this.
One or two loan cases are hard to win at the Ombudsman. It’s probably best to give up on one or two loan cases unless:
- the loan was large. Here is one single loan case that was won even though it was an installment loan and the borrower had a good income. And another single loan case for a loan of £1,000. You can win cases for smaller amounts if the repayment would have been a large amount of your income; or
- you still owe money.
Don’t delay too long – there is a 6-month time limit after a lender rejects your complaint to send the case to the ombudsman. When you aren’t sure, send the complaint to FOS. This is easy to do – let FOS make the decision.
How to send a complaint to FOS
Put in a separate complaint about each lender.
Don’t wait until all your lenders have replied before sending the first one to the Ombudsman!
FOS’s “complain online” option is easy and takes you through your complaint step by step.
You can just copy what you said in your complaint to the lender. You can add more details, for example, if you disagree with what the lender replied to you.
If some of your loans were over 6 years ago, tell the Ombudsman when and how you found out about these complaints. For example:
“I knew the loans were causing me difficulty in 2016, but I thought this was my fault for being bad with money. I didn’t find out that the lender should have checked the loans were affordable until June 2022 when my brother told me about these claims/I saw an advert from a claims company on Facebook/I read an article about these claims” – change this so it is right for your case!
Things to attach:
- the reply you have had from the lender.
- bank statements if you have them. Ideally from 3 months before your first loan until the last loan was repaid or you defaulted on it. This strengthens your case, showing how unaffordable the loans were. You can still get bank statements even if your account is closed – if you don’t have them, start the process of getting them now, don’t wait until FOS asks for them.
- a copy of your TransUnion Statutory credit report
- a copy of the credit agreements for the loans if you have them. If you don’t, don’t worry, FOS will get them from the lender.
What happens after you have sent a case to FOS
You will normally be contacted within a couple of weeks and asked for a copy of your credit record and your bank statements if you haven’t sent these. If you have sent these on one complaint, then when you complain about a different lender they will use the ones they already have.
After this initial contact, your case will wait for the lender to send FOS your case file and then wait to be picked up by an adjudicator who will make a decision on it.
If you are still making payments to the lender, tell the lender you want to reduce these to an affordable amount. This will make waiting for an Ombudsman decision much less stressful for you.
The Financial Ombudsman has a two-stage process. Most cases are settled by the first “adjudicator” stage but about 10% go to the second “Ombudsman” stage.
A few problem cases
Don’t ask for a refund:
- if you are bankrupt now or have been bankrupt in the past – any refund would go to the Official Receiver.
- if you are in an IVA, as refunds will go to your IVA firm not to you. If your IVA has finished the refund may still be sent to your old IVA firm.
- if you are in a DRO now, getting a refund may mean your DRO is cancelled!
More help
You can ask a question in the comments below – you may get a reply from someone who has been in your exact situation.
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive and often incompetent. It’s easy to do this yourself and you can ask questions below and get replies from other readers who have done this.
Card & catalogue affordability complaints
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Could a Debt Relief Order help you?
Louis says
So I have loans with Sunny and Lending stream. I have had 18 (!) loans from lending stream over the past 11 months and 3 loans from Sunny over a few months. Email for Sunny loans is not working?
Here is what LS replied :
Please note that you had borrowed 18 loans from Lending Stream, out of which 6 loans are still outstanding.
[general stuff they send everyone edited out]
Your Experian scores were 573 and above at the time of applications which was factored into our proprietary underwriting and deemed acceptable. Your disposable income was £402 and above at the time of applications, which indicated that repayments could be made without difficulty. You were employed full-time during the loan applications
[general stuff on how customers should provide accurate info when apply for a loan]
Loan Events:
While going through the accounts, we note that whenever Lending Stream was made aware of your financial difficulties, we offered you required assistance.
Having said the above, we believe that Lending Stream carried out the appropriate affordability checks with due consideration while approving your loans and has dealt with them fairly.
Considering your financial circumstances, we are ready to set up an affordable payment arrangement on your outstanding loans.
[details about how to pay them]
kenny says
Louis
ask if this is their final response, and get it sent into the fos, they are trying to intimidate you and hope that you go away. get it sent in straight away.
but id bet once you ask if this is their final response, you will get an offer. they rely on people not knowing the legal process regarding complaints, but follow this site and its bloggers and you can’t go wrong
Matt says
Hi louis,
I had the exact same email from ls. I sent it straight to financial ombudsmen and last week they found in my favour and requested ls to refund 1400 and remove from credit file
Matt
Rosie says
Hi, I received a very substantial refund from WageDay Advance back in August (no need for FOS) which I was happy to accept. In their decision they advised “The first seven loans were agreed more than six years before you made your complaint. We would therefore consider your complaint, in relation to these loans, to be time barred. I have therefore not conducted an investigation into these loans but have considered the history of these loans in reviewing from loan eight onwards.”
Considering the new information that the Ombudsman will now look at payday loans over 6 years, do I now go straight to them to say I was misinformed or do I have to go back to WageDay Advance again ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know. I suggest you phone the Ombudsman’s helpline up and ask 0800 023 4567. Could you let us know what happens?
Pamela says
Hi Sara, Could I ask a bit of advice please. I have a current complaint sitting with The Cheque Centre, for a number of payday loans from 2009 until 2012. I had other payday loans at this time and The advisor at the Cheque Centre talked me into signing up for a 12 month payment loan of £1500 to help with my debts. I was given no time to think about this and was told the shop was busy and I would need to take it now. I found myself signing up to a loan that was a total of £368 per month, £3000 interest in the year. I can’t believe what I did at this time, I think I was just not thinking and that it would solve problems. I have included this in my complaint and their response saying that they are investigating mentions the loan also. Has anyone else had success with a loan other than payday loans. I have payday loans with them up until the date of this loan agreement. It was by far the worst as it crippled me financially so I would like to think I would have success with this. Thanks for your help. Pamela
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The affordability rules are the same for all credit – loans, credit cards etc. So yes, you should be making an affordability complaint about this expensive 12 month loan if the £368 monthly payment was not affordable – were you getting deeper into debt in the next year?
If their response says the last loan was affordable, or they won’t consider it because it wasn’t a payday loan, take the complaint to the Ombudsman.
With loans going back to 2009, you are likely to get a reply from the Cheque Centre saying they won’t look at the ones over 6 years old… If they offer a full refund on everything after 6 years you may think this is a reasonable offer. But if they don’t and you are thinking of going to the Financial ombudsman with the case, you should know that the Ombudsman now seems to be deciding that it CAN look at these older loans.
Pamela says
Hi Sara,
Thanks very much for your help and advice, the loan from the Cheque Centre worsened my debt situation by far and I continued to have to borrow through other payday lenders until the end of 2014. Luckily since then I have been in the clear.
I will bear in mind your news on the 6 year rule. I am expecting to have to take this one to Ombudsman regardless, unless they surprise me with an offer. I have worked out all interest plus 8% to be around £6500 so I will see if they come back with anything.
I had a very quick offer from Albemarle Bond which I was happy with as it was all interest and 8% from 2012 as the previous loan company now in administration. I accepted this yesterday and the money is in the bank today. Very happy about that.
John says
I had loans from 2011 to 2013 with Cheque Centre. £3300 paid in interest. Complaint in to them in July. They offered me £1100. I turned it down and Fos complaint in September. Adjudicator decided last week they were irresponsible and has ordered all interest and 8%, roughly 4k. Cheque Centre have accepted this and I’m awaiting the Cheque. Hope this helps.
Nigel says
I have gone back to Wonga and PDUK today asking them to now look at Loans over 6 years. In the final response and refund letter the make reference to not looking at those loans and not considering them. But based on the new information I have asked them to look at all loans from 2008 onwards. I am doing this because They did not go through the FOS at the time. But if you have, like me waived this, for instance with QQ through the FOS then you wont be able to compalin. QQ originally refused to look at the complaint as it was over 8.5 years so I had to agree to the 6 year ruling.
Dan says
Hi can someone help me understand something? So far I have had 7 refunds 6 have l been paid in full and one from payday express came this morning, with payday express they have taken 20% off my 8% interest for tax and this has been laid out in the summary letter. No other lender has done this or made mention to taking 20% the 8% interest refund for tax. Is it normal and have other company’s done this but have just made the reduction before telling me the total or have payday express done something they shouldn’t have?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Dan, Payday Express haven’t done anything wrong but they may not be right! If that sounds confusing it’s because the tax situation is currently unclear. Before April it was clear – you had to pay tax on the 8% interest element of a refund. Same rules that applied to PPI. Some if the larger lenders deducted this tax automatically. Others didn’t so you ought to declare these amounts on a tax return.
BUT the tax rules changed in April and if now isn’t clear if the new 1000 a year tax free savings element will mean that these refunds aren’t taxable. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/tax-ppi-payday-loan-refunds/. I suggest you complete a form and ask for it to be repaid https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-claim-for-repayment-of-tax-deducted-from-savings-and-investments-r40
Andy says
A quick question/observation.
Something I’ve noticed is that a number of company’s seem to have stopped offering to start loans over again. Not sure if this is what you’d call a top up, but for example….
I borrowed £2k from 118 money, after about 6 monthly repayments a button appeared to reapply, so I could take out another £2k, which would be used to pay off the remainder of the last loan and then effectively start again.
When I’ve asked about this to a few of them recently they have said they are not currently offering this facility and are reviewing their lending etc etc.
Does this mean by offering the top up they have realised they have backed themselves into an unaffordability
Corner?
All I’ve done with 118 is take out the 2k and then top up half way through back to 2k so I have bothered with a complaint as I thought it would need to be numerous loans to stand a chance.
Should I put a complaint in to all lenders, is it a case of nothing to lose?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s now harder to get a payday loan. Partly the need to look good to their regulator. Partly the price cap (now just down to the eye-wateringly extortionate from the previous loan shark levels) means that they can’t afford to have so many debts defaulted on.
If you have borrowed money consistently from 118 or any other lender put in a complaint. Loans that are rolled-over / deferred / refinaced are effectively new loans as the lender could at that point have said “no” instead of letting you get deeper into debt.
With 118 i suggest you don’t say they are a payday lender as they may just argue that they aren’t – with an average APR of 99% they are just squeaking under the 100% mark which is sometimes used to identify payday lending. But the affordability rules apply to ANY lender so if you couldn’t afford the repayments without borrowing again, complain.
The heart of your complaint needs to be your situation and that 118 should have known that you were in trouble because of your repeat borrowing.
Ross says
After yesterdays Wonga success, it’s back down to earth with a bang with a rejection from Wageday Advance. However, there final response makes for some strange reading. In it, they state the following;
1) They never used CRA’s to make any of my loan decisions, as they say lenders don’t have to. This I find a but odd?
2) They knew I was repeat borrowing, hence the reason why they called one day to wipe the interest off of that particular loan as a ‘goodwill gesture’, but then carried on lending to me. I even distinctly remember the guy on the other end of the phone saying ‘have this one on us’?!?
3) Offering me a ‘repayment plan’ even though the loan is settled?!?
I am sending this one to the FOS as I am confident they have ultimately shot themselves in the foot, admitting to what they have admitted to. Watch this space!
Mark says
Hi guys, those asking for timescales on TMS, they were given the final decision notice on 1st November which means 28 days, today 18 days later i phoned them and they were actually calculating my interest when I phoned them. Nice surprise for me in the 6 years they were told to pay back i had 33 loans which they need to refund on all. They told me next week i ll have the money
herbie says
Hi, saw this website yesterday and sent off the first email to all my lenders last night , i previously had a refund from wonga and one loan written off last year unsolicited by them . i have several others from same time that are both paid in full and defaulted on last loan. so not really loking for money , just un nfair ones reduced or interest removed , i want to be debt free
——————————————-
We are aware that there are many forums and templated letters available on the internet to exploit any previous credit commitments under the wholly subjective banner of affordability. We have seen some legitimate claims upheld in the press such as with the lender Cash Genie. However, to compare our actions with their reported behaviour is inappropriate.
We are, however, happy as a gesture of goodwill to resolve by writing off your balance.
I note from your account with us that over the course of our relationship with you have still not repaid us the total amount that has been advanced to your account. Do be aware that, in our experience, it is likely that any third party mediators you may refer your account to may ask you to repay the difference in order that you have at least repaid the total amount that we have funded to your account.
You have borrowed a total of £815.00 from us. You have repaid a total of £542.24.
That means that, if you disregard any interest or charges that were agreed as part of your contract, you still would need to return funds to us.
Where you hear comments re: refund entitlement +8% this relates to payments of interest and charges over and above the amount we advanced to your account.
————————————————————————
i have lot of debt, lot of gsmbling and have mental health issues although i am well paid now, had about 3 statements back today
should i carry on with complaint
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You didn’t say who this email was from – it looks a lot like Moneybox 247’s typical ones?
Are they right that you borrowed 815 and you have so far repaid 542? If they are, then their offer to write off your balance is a good one and you are VERY unlikely to get more by going to the Financial Ombudsman.
herbie says
yes, its the last loan i defaulted on . it seemed very fair and quick, i am responsible for the debt, Iwouldent lend myself a penny, so they probably shouldent have! if i can get some balances down great, ideally any repair or change to my credit file would be good. it was 247 money box, i have 700 pound balances or less with sunny, uncle buck safety net and a few others, they were borrow pay back, immediate borrow then disaster the first time one wouldent relend , so i cancelled bank and buried y head
Herbie says
47Moneybox.com via activesecurities.com
to me
Hi ,
Thanks for your email. We offered as a gesture of goodwill to resolve by writing off your outstanding balance meaning that, in case you accept the offer, you will no longer owe us money. Further to that, we offer to remove any defaults registered from your credit file. We believe this is a reasonable offer given the fact that you have not repaid the principal amount advanced to your account.
[standard stuff deleted]
cant really complain or ask for more than this . response to second email. its a a few hundred pounds i can ill afford, adnmakes a huge difference to becoming debt free and regaining control
and i suppose the payday loan companies are now scouring this to second guess and see whst people are up to
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If this was the only loan from them or you only had 1 or 2 others, then this is a good offer. Good to get one sorted!
Louis says
Hello all, I have written above my case “Louis” and today got a reply RE: Final response.
I will edit later but for now, I will share the basic summary.
They have said they will waiver 3 of my loans.
They will waiver the interest on the other 3 and hence pay the remainder of the loans I have left. (approx 130 pounds or something)
Again, my case is above under name “Louis” for the details.
Should I go FOS or take this offer?
Also, My sunny loan people keep ringing me… I have 3 loans with them but they accidentally credited my account 250£ a few hours after I got a loan from them a few months ago. They have added this to my account (sunny account) to pay back – I didn’t agree in anyway to that loan but I have spent the money. (What was I supposed to think? Never checked to see). What should I do here? I cannot afford to pay them back the money they are asking… It’s only 3 loans over the span of 2 months as well.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
re Lending Stream.
They gave you 18 loans, 12 were repaid. Do you know how much you borrowed and how much you repaid to these 12 loans?
The 6 where there is a balance, same question – do you know how much you borrowed, how much you have repaid so far to these?
With those figures it’s possible to say how good this offer of LS’s is.
Did you tell them you were in difficulty whilst you were borrowing from them? NB it doesn’t matter if you didn’t, but there is rather an odd sentence in their first email to you “While going through the accounts, we note that whenever Lending Stream was made aware of your financial difficulties, we offered you required assistance.” and I wondered what it referred to?
re Sunny – I suggest you pick up the phone and say you can’t afford to repay them. Have you put in a complaint? You do have to return their £250, but they can’t charge you interest on that!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Any chance of going through your bank statements and working out what you repaid LS? If not, could you ask LS for a Statement of Account for all your loans, say that you need this to consider their offer.
Can I suggest you contact StepChange https://www.stepchange.org/ about your outstanding debts – they can help you look at what your options are. You can still carry on with these complaints, but StepChange will help you to deal with the lenders where you still owe money.
Louis says
I will get back in touch with them today. I mean it sounds like a reasonable offer – 167£ would be the amount I have to pay them back as they would waiver around 400£+ and it states I can offer them x amount each month to repay the debt; interest free as well of course. It is simply (borrowed amount – amount paid).
Slightly gutted I didn’t get a good offer of compensation though.
I still need to speak to sunny loans, I wonder how reasonable they can be.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You may be right that this is a reasonable offer – however without knowing what you have already paid them it is impossible to know.
In the end this is a matter of fairness and what feels right to you. If you think it’s a good offer, then accept it. If you aren’t sure, then ask them to give you details of your loans so you can make some checks. You can’t accept an offer then change your mind later!
Lynsey says
I just received an email to say I’m getting £12,000 back! Thanks debt camel!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I asked Lynsey for some details of this as I knew everyone would like to know. The lender is Wonga and she was offered this directly by Wonga after just 5 weeks! Congrats!
Morag says
Congratulations, I think this is the most someone has had!?
Michelle says
Congrats Lynsey, I have a complaint with them for 50 loans from 2011 with top ups and allowing me to borrow the same day I paid them back the previous loan – this happened on multiple occasions. I calculated the interest repaid at £9500.
Can I ask how many loans you had over what period and what interest they owed you before the 8%.
Again congratulations as that’s an awesome good news story coming up to Christmas ?
Jamie says
Hi
I stumbled across this website last month and its certainly has given me the will to chase these companies for compensation. Having to borrow off these companies was a bleak period in my life and fully believe they prey on the vulnerable.
My situation is as follows:
The Money Shop- Complaint has been acknowledged 28/10
Wonga- Complaint has been passed to dedicated team to investigate 13/11
Lending Stream- Complaint has been passed to F.O. and been acknowledged by F.O 12/11
Cheque Centre- Complaint has been sent. Not heard back
PDUK- Request for statement not acknowledged 28/10
Wage Day Advance- Req further info from me and sent 02/11
P2P- no reply from statement req 28/10
24/7 MoneyBox- offer to wipe balance but i have requested statement on account and not heard back 28/10
In regard to Lending Stream they have just sent their 2nd final response to me. Maybe in response to FO writing to them? I had 3 loans with them borrowing £320. I defaulted on all 3 loans and these loans were passed to PRA for collection. a total of around £600. I have been in a payment plan with them and am around£30 from paying it all off.
Lending stream final final (lol) response they have offered to waive the interest of £103.16, £157.00 and £257.00 from the current outstanding balances but I have already paid this to PRA.
They have admitted to procedural error for accepting one of the loans and offered compensation of £76. I’m really confused on what to do next? Do I send this final response to the F.O?
I would be very thankful for any advice?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
re the Lending Stream complaint. They obviously don’t know that you have been repaying the debt that they sold.
You could replay to them that you only have a balance of £30 remaining, and that you will be happy to settle this complaint if they refund you the interest you have have already paid plus the compensation they have offered , ie 103+157+257+76 = £593.
Rob says
Hi Sara
Having got into an awful mess with Payday Loans 2010-2014, I stumbled across this website when Wonga wrote to me offering a £6 refund on one of my loans in their redress scheme!
Like many others I sent my affordability complaints off to all the lenders in June 2016 , agreed deals directly with 3 of them and the other 9 are currently at various stages with the FOS. In terms of those complaints where the adjudicator has agreed with me, I potentially have approx £23k coming back in interest and charges and if all goes well with the others it will be another £12k.
Obviously this may all be dependant on Ombudsman review but I am hopeful. I wanted to write this to give others inspiration to progress their complaints.
Yes it a long drawn out process, yes the FOS ask quite detailed questions about the entries in your bank statements but they are good and fair people to deal with. I found it quite painful to go back through my finances when things were really bad but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.
Many thanks again for bringing this issue to the attention of so many. I wonder how many people who had Payday loans are still unaware of the potential to reclaim interest where their loans were unaffordable? As I said I only stumbled across this forum by accident!
Thanks again.
Claire says
Has anybody got any experience with safetynetcredit please? I’ve received the usual fobbing me off response to my complaint? Thanks
Matt S says
I also have a complaint in against SafetyNet. When I advised them I was complaining they agreed to put my account on hold and no further interest was added. I’d paid them a little under £2000 in interest in just over a year. When they accepted me I was £4000 overdrawn, with payday and guarantor loan payments coming out and a monthly payment to a debt management company, aswell as a serious gambling problem. They would have been able to see all of this but still accepted me. Within 4 weeks they offered to write off my outstanding balance which would have been around half of what I’d paid in interest. I refused and put it to the Ombudsman and expecting to get a decision from my adjudicator by the end of this week.
Matt says
Just a word of advice for anyone relying on the lender to calculate the amount to be refunded after a decision from the FOS. An ombudsman made a final decision and on pretty much the last day of the 4 weeks I received notification of the amount to be refunded to me. I was a bit surprised at it as I was expecting slightly more.
After re-calculating the amount due myself I found that:-
1) The lender had completely missed interest from one of the loans from the total. This plus the 8% interest was about £250.
2) 8% interest was only calculated on full years and did not include the part year element e.g. a loan from June 2012 was only 4 years of 8% interest and not 4 years and 5 months. It sounds minor but the value of this all added up to £60 so was significant.
It’s a bit worrying that a lot of reliance is placed on the lender calculating the correct amount – worth checking what they have done!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
HI Matt, has this now been corrected, if so did you complain to the lender or to your adjudicator?
Matt says
Hi Sara – yes I replied directly to the lender to give them the benefit of the doubt and they admitted they had calculated it incorrectly. They have said that they’ve processed a separate payment for the difference.
I’m in two minds about going back to the FOS to tell them about it – although I still have not actually received any money and it is now over the 4 weeks, so if I still haven’t in a day or so I will be much more inclined to.
Tim says
So out of the blue, the money shop has contacted my adjudicator with an offer which is actually slightly more than I expected. RESULT : ) How long it takes to be paid out i dont know but well happy with this.
That is the last of my UK lenders dealt with. I got a result with every one of them. Some results were as expected, some though the ombudsman actually reduced the adjudicators decision so i received less, I appreciate this could happen but the ones they did it on were the ones I was really sure I would get the full amount on.
I just want to say thank you to Sara for everything and for all the support and discussion on here. My credit score has massively improved and I have no debt for the first time in 10 years.
Good luck all.
Cheers
Tim
Ross says
So, I’ve just had to contact Wonga, as the acceptance form for the settlement was sent back last Wednesday (16/11/16) and since then nothing. The lady on the phone, whilst very helpful and polite, could offer no explanation as to why things haven’t moved on since an acknowledged that it had been logged on the 17/11/16 that the form had been received by them. I really do think the expression ‘twisting the knife’ is appropriate here, as they’re just making a bad situation even worse by apparent incompetence. I have been assured that it will be sent for processing today and that I would receive an email after the call, confirming this had been done. 15 minutes after the call, and no email, so I suppose it’s going to take more chasing?
Mark says
Hi Ross, in my experience with all of these guys 5 days would be a fast payout.
For example I am 21 days in from TMS, 14 days with Payday Express and 7 days with CFO.
I am (trying) to expect the full 28 as the waiting is very anxious
Louise says
Haven’t posted for ages. Just a couple of queries.
Ombudsman upheld my complaint with 247 moneybox, have had no response from them whatsoever with a figure or when I’m going to get the money! Do they get 4 weeks to respond too? It wasn’t clear in my letter, I know I had 4 Weeks to accept the ombudsman findings.
Also, what are people’s experiences with WDA after adjudicator has given there response? Mine upheld today and they have until 5th December to respond before goes to ombudsman.
Thanks!
Claire says
The adjudicator also upheld my complaint against WDA. Have heard today that WDA have disagreed so it’s now with the Ombudsman. Such a long process
Miles says
My adjudicator upheld my complaint against Money Shop, they didn’t respond so went to Ombudsman for final decision, but now Ombudsman wants proof of loans from from me as Money Shop won’t send a statement of accounts to either me or the FoS
I was relying on the FoS getting info from them as I don’t have any statements as it was all cash in the office. Apart from every single month for paying them £43 by debit card that the Ombudsman can see on my statements, but that isn’t enough?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you asked the Ombudsman why your bank statements are not sufficient evidence of the loans?
I suppose you could consider sending TMS a Subject Access Request – they would have to reply to that, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ico-money-shop/. If you do this, check with the Ombudsman first because it will take several weeks for TMS to reply.
Ally says
Miles
Have you tried just going into your local TMS branch and asking for a print out of your transaction history. I have done this at 2 branches no problem.
Dan says
Hi everyone,
Can anyone tell me about their experience with quick quid. Just passed week 7 now and had no contact si ce the first email. They keep ignoring my emails. Anyone had success with them?
Dan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are slow and often don’t reply within the 8 weeks. Take the case straight to the Ombudsman when it gets to the 8 week point! People are getting good payouts from the Ombudsman, including on flexi loans.
Suzy says
Mine has gone all the way to Ombudsman it started in May just been upheld waiting for money to go in my account
Louise says
I’ve done the 8 weeks. Original adjudicator upheld in may! QQ Then disagreed. Then another wait, then it was about to go to ombudsman when the 6yr ruling came about with putting on hold. Finally my adjudicator (who never responded much!)got in touch to say they could ‘ignore’ the over 6yr, I said fine as unlikely to include that one any way! He then moved jobs in FOS, passed to another adjudicator who is re looking into it, he is then passing on to ombudsman!!
Rachel says
Hi Louise yes this is what happened with mine started in march went through process on hold due to six years then finally resolved the pre six years ignored sorted out start of month so hopefully yours will be sorted soon took 8 months but worth the wait
Ross says
I’ve just had an email from my adjudicator with reference to my complaint against Provident (trading as Satsuma Loans). He has partially upheld my complaint for the last (and largest) loan I took from them. He has advised they refund all interest +8% on this loan. I am pleased with this, as this will clear the loan and also give me a refund just shy of £300. Just a case of waiting now to see if Provident accept the adjudicators findings, even though he’s made I clear in the letter that he can see no reason why an ombudsman’s view would be any different. I will keep you updated as I know a few people are asking how Provident complaints pan out.
Nim says
I have had confirmation that Provident have received my complaint via FOS. Awaiting final response for around 2300 interest paid over 4-5 years!
thanks
Nim
Mat says
Hi all,
Quick question. My complaint against pdex went to fod about 5 weeks ago. Sent credit reports and god requested bank statements on my behalf for closed account. Adjudicator says should have a response by early next week. My concern is after reading comments on here, after document request, adjudicator hasn’t been in touch to discuss anything. Is this a bad sign? I had gambling transactions all over my statements and I know others have still had success but weird that they haven’t asked for any more details. I had thought my case here was pretty rock solid, 20 individual loans taken out over 24 months of ever increasing values and multiple rollovers, evidence of other lending/defaults/ccjs on credit report especially considering i settled with other lenders from same time period, but now I’m concerned. It’s my only one to go to fos and could be around £3k so I just don’t know what to expect. Any comments gladly received!
Ross says
Hi Mat,
Don’t worry about gambling transactions showing on your statements. I have had lots showing on mine, but the adjudicator/ombudsman won’t form any personal judgement on this, but will probably use this when forming a decision. I have had a complaint upheld today by the FOS and my gambling transactions were part of the reason why it was upheld. I’d just give them the time they need to make an informed deciding abd I’m sure they’ll be in touch when they can do this.
Mike says
Hi
Has anyone had any issues with Wonga regarding a loan statement? 8 weeks ago I requested a statement from my loan in 2012 and despite a number of requests no one has got back to me apart from a email saying they will respond to my request within 24-48 hrs. It is now 8 weeks so I have gone to the FO today.
On another note I recently received compensation from Sunny and Mr lender but pounds 2 pocket turned down my complaint so this is with the FO. This is a fab page and by the looks of it, it has helped so many people so a BIG WELL DONE!!
Nim says
HI Mike, I found them very prompt….I sent a complaint via FOS on 11th, had final response on 14th Nov, declined. I further asked for my loan statements on the 15th Nov and received them on the 16th Nov! so I guess it’s luck of the draw?
But good luck and keep chasing!
Best
Nim
Al says
Hi all,
Has anyone had any luck with a personal loan provider? OnStride Financial lent me £2400 when I was struggling with payday lenders (and lots of gambling). Before they released the funds, they wanted to see my bank statements. I just sent a screenshot of my account balance (in my overdraft by around £1000) and it just showed my name, account number and sort code. The next day the money was in my account.
Do you think I have a case?
Thanks,
Al
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The affordability rules are the same for all lenders. if you think OnStride Financial didn’t do a proper affordability check then complain!
You need to be able to show that you couldn’t afford the loan repayments each month. If your credit report would have shown late / missed payments or defaults you may have a good case.
laura says
Has anyone had any luck complaining about amigo loans? , I took one loan out to consolidate my debts , my mum is my Guarantor but didn’t completely know what I was paying off with the money and didn’t realize I had a gambling addiction – so told her this was to use to pay off my credit cards and payday loans , a lot of that money from the loan went on gambling ( stupid I know but that’s an addiction for you) I paid that over a year and become into difficulty again , Amigo offered me a “top up loan” as I had paid for 6 months on time and my Guarantor agreed to the top up to £7500 , from £4500 so they took what I owed from the previous loan out of my pay out of the new one , even at the begging of this loan I was struggling with the payments – its only when I started receiving refunds from other loan companies did I start paying chunks off the loan – any ideas if I could still claim ? – even know im getting texts, e-mails and calls asking me to top up AGAIN now ive cleared more than half of what I owe them , Any help would be appreciated
Matt S says
I have an Amigo loan which was originally for £3000, topped up to £5000 almost 3 years ago and still got just over £4000 still to pay (pretty much just been paying off the interest so far). Had a couple of late payments earlier this year but once I got back on track they started offering me another top up. Absolutely no way I’m taking it though. Did make me think about putting in a complaint, however I looked at Ombudsmans decisions against them and very few if any are upheld (particularly on affordability) and so I don’t think I’m even going to bother trying.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There were hardly any affordability decisions being won against payday lenders 15 months ago …
By now you (and other people making these payday loans claims) are pretty much the experts in affordability. Could you repay this Amig loan without borrowing more the next month? If you couldn’t, then it wasn’t affordable.
It is harder to win a complaint against Amigo and similar loans because the repayment amounts were lower than payday laons – but they could still be unaffordable. There is also not the repeat borrowing month after month.
But one thing that may make it easier is the larger size of the loan. Amigo would certainly have been expected to check your credit record and take account of it. Obviously guarantor loans aren’t aimed at people with perfect credit scores, but how bad was your credit record when you borrowed? Also should they have allowed the top up?
laura says
When I took the second loan , I had around 8/9 payday loans , and 4 credit cards maxed out , If it wasn’t for the refunds going into my account it would struggle to make the payments as the loan amount wouldn’t have covered everything I needed to give me a clean slate – my situation now has improved with the refunds and I have cleared up all the payday loans and working towards paying off my credit cards , Is there any way I could complain for the fact in the last 4 months Ive had 8 texts asking me to top up my loan again , a letter in the post , 2 e-mails along with a big banner when I log into my account “begging” for me to top the loan up again to £7500 – can a lender do this to someone potentially venerable and in a difficult financial situation
?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could inform the FCA that you think this is irresponsible lending (see https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/ which has a section on how to do this – it’s a simple email, not a long drawn out process) … but unless you have actually take out a loan you aren’t going to get any compensation from the ombudsman for this.
aga says
Hi Sara and everyone,
i promised to give u an update on Money shop ( started claim in February)
this is a feedback Received today from the Money shop:
”
Further to a recent decision from the Financial Ombudsman Service, I confirm that your settlement amount has been calculated and will be processed shortly. I am very sorry for the delay in responding.”
today is day no 35 so it’s 7 days past due date for pay out from the day the adjudicator sent to them my acceptance of Ombudsman decision
Mark says
Hi Aga have you rung the money shop? I am day 23 now, they have finished calculating apparently and now need manager sign off
Aga says
Hi Mark, yes I sent them an e mail today again and they replied – the money was on the way, I just checked my account and…. after so much time the money is finally in my account total of £3311 , I am so happy , it is brilliant website and many thanks to Sara for all the advice and help . I haven’t checked if the calculations are correct as many people say TMS made errors but I am so happy with what I`ve got tonight …
Rob says
1 of my complaints was with payday express. I had paid £4K in interest across all my loans and they offered me nothing. I went to FOS and it’s been put on hold to decide whether they’re going to look loans after 6 years. Adjudicator called me today to say they’d offered £590 for a goodwill gesture. I refused the offer. Anyone had any experience where this has happened and received another offer?
Michelle says
Has anyone complained to 247moneybox then received a call from them offering a new loan. They called me to tell me I have paid all previous loans so would I like a new one.
I told them I didn’t and I’m surprised they are calling as the FOS have written to them to remind them they have 8 weeks to respond to my complaint I have submitted. The guy quickly ended the call at this point
Thanks
Dilber says
Hello,
I had total of 53 payday loans from Wonga over the period of 3 years . Each loan kept increasing until it reached 80% of my monthly pay. Being new in the UK, I wasn’t aware of debt charities or other debt solutions. Wonga never did proper affordability checks, ignored repeated loan cycle and never encouraged/guided me to seek debt help. With 2 children and unemployed wife, it soon became nightmare for me. I started getting episodes of sever depression, anxiety and panic attacks ended up in A&E and to GP several times. I am now on DMP but I have lost a lot , despite being on good pay and decent job, I have no savings and massive debt. After getting no reply to my complaint for more than 6 months, I have now filed my complaint to Financial Ombudsman service.
I was just wondering how long it takes to get any results out of it? or do I have any chance to get compensation?
regards
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like an excellent case. But the bit I don’t understand is that you have heard nothing from Wonga for 6 months. 6 months ago they were slow but they usually replied to someone even if it was just to ask for more time. If you have literally heard nothing, I suggest you phone them up and ask why, perhaps they are emailing the wrong address?
Mike says
Hi Sara,
my complaint is gathering pace and the Ombudsman have sent me a letter to say that they’ve written to QQ and asked them to investigate the complaint. In the meantime, they’ve written to me asking me for a copy of my bank statements from the time, a copy of my credit file, the date I took out the loans and a copy of each and my customer reference with the business. I sent them my statement of accounts when I uploaded my documents to their website, shouldn’t this cover my loan amounts and my reference number with QQ? Also I had to close my bank account so it would be very difficult for me to get hold of my statements, are these important to send to them? Regarding my credit file, how would I send that to them?
thanks,
Mike
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I *think* the FOS is starting to routinely ask for this info at the beginning of a complaint. So it may be this was an automatic message to you and yes you have already supplied a lot of the information on your loans including customer reference number.
Bank statements, these are very important for your complaint – the FOS will be able to get them directly from a bank if you give them the account number and sort code.
Credit file – people usually download their Noddle file – it’s free, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/best-way-to-check-credit-score/. It’s easier to download from a desktop PC rather than a phone.
Matt S says
Is it usual for an Ombudsman to take 2 weeks or longer to write a final decision? I was told almost 2 weeks ago that the ombudsman had all the information they needed and were in the process of writing their final decision (this after having previously had a provisional decision) and still have not received anything. I asked my adjudicator for an update last Thursday and was told I’d hopefully receive it within the next 2 weeks. So potentially up to 3 weeks for them to write their final decision. Is this usual?
Ross says
I think it’s just a case of waiting TBH Matt. I would prefer the Ombudsman to take all the time he or she needs to come to the correct conclusion rather than rush it and, potentially, come to wrong conclusion. There’s a lot of aspects they need to consider from both sides of the complaint and all cases are different. I have quite a few at the FOS at the moment and it’s just a case of sitting and waiting.
Matt S says
Your right, it is just a waiting game, and I do want them to get it right. Its just frustrating as originally got the adjudicators decision around 3 months ago but because Payday Express didn’t respond it went to the Ombudsman who made a provisional decision (which I was delighted with) within 3/4 weeks but because they’d changed the adjudicators decision they needed to give Payday Express time to respond to it. But its now been over 8 weeks since the provisional decision was made and almost 6 weeks since Payday Express responded to that with further information. Just feels like its dragging on forever (originally complained start of February so almost been 10 months).
craig says
i am in the same boat. Ajudicator wrote to Payday express on 18th October with a provisional decision giving them till 1st November.
They failed to respond so was given till the 14th November as they have a huge backlog and still no response.
They are now giving them till the end of this week otherwise it will go to an Ombudsman which from past experiences will probably take another month so I am not expecting this one to be resolved until the New Year.
PS….Original complaint to Payday express was sent on 4th April
Craig
craig says
****further update**** i called payday express today and they have just emailed to say they would send a response to my adjudicators decision by close of play friday 25th november so we shall see what happens.
also if anyone has had unauthorised credit search from Instant Cash Loans ltd who are Payday Express, UK & The Money Shop then contact their customer relations centre on 08002 802548 asking for this to be removed and compensation for the inconvenience
Marco says
Hi great website, Wonga got back to stating they would give me £180 and i have replied with my bank details but Its been over a week i have sent them two more emails and they are ignoring me what should I do?. Thanks.
Ross says
Call them! I sent my acceptance back, via email, last Wednesday. I heard nothing more, so I decided to call them on Monday. The acceptance was confirmed as received, but nothing had been done with it. It was sent for approval then, and should be paid out by the end of the week. Had I not called them, it would still be sat there now, with not much happening. Therefore, pick up the phone! They’re friendly enough, even though it’s do with a complaint.
Marco says
So Wonga emailed me after 3 of my emails being sent telling me they have had no response from me and they will close my case in 5 days if i dont contact them. On close look the email they told me to use has a spelling mistake…. This is just a warning to other people using wonga.
“As we have not received a response from you, we are writing to ask whether you want to accept our suggested resolution. You can confirm by email cusomercomplaints@wonga.com or by calling us on 0800 316 6745.”
As you can see there is no T in customer. So my emails where not reaching them, this is just a heads up to other people. thanks.
Adam says
Hello, Over a month ago I commented on some advice since I had alot of loans mostly due to gambling addiction. I was advised to just complain on the grounds that the amount of loans took out it was clear it was unaffordable and not to mention gambling. I got my first response from Wonga today offering me the interest from 2 loans, but I had over 30 over a couple years. Now I am going to take this to the ombudsman as it suggests in the guidance above, but when taking it to the ombudsman should I mention the gambling? Thanks, Adam
Ross says
Hi Adam,
Firstly, there’s no shame in the gambling, so don’t feel foolish or embarrassed. As part of the investigation by the Ombudsman, they will require your bank statements for the period(s) you had the loans. If you gambled online, then these will flag up on your statements. Don’t worry about this. If you borrowed to gamble, as well as pay your priority bills, then the Ombudsman may decided that these loans were not suitable for you, especially if you repeatedly borrowed from the same company and/or companies. People who gambled, who then then complain, feel there is a huge stigma attached to this, but this is not the case and the Ombudsman will not form any personal opinion on you because of your choice to gamble. Good luck!
Mark says
Hi Adam, in my opinion ( I am only someone in the same situation ) be open about it. You will probably have to send in your bank statements anyway that will show this. I have 5 settled cases and 5 to go, not once has the gambling been an issue.
It is all about affordability and so each case is different, but the letters back to the lenders from the ombudsman mention that my loans were unaffordable due to the amount of loans I had with each lender and my heavy gambling.
A lot will rest on what the lenders behaviour was like with you too, so multiple loans and rollovers and particularly defaults show a level of unaffordability and a reliance on what should have been a short term solution.
Hope that helps, Sara is better positioned than me to advise but this is just my opinion.
Mark says
Hello me again, today i heard back q provisional final decision from the ombudsman, they have agreed to a £4,500 refund with toothfairy. However, i have been told i wont get all the money due to liquidation. Anyone been paid out by the toothfairy liquidators and what was the percentage of money you received versus what you should have got?
Nigel says
Hi Mark. My complaint has been pushed to the urgent stage and is imminently waiting to be heard by the ombudsman. I have also been told that what in the pot will be shared around. But at least it’s something. My due amount would be of a similar size.
Claire says
Success with Sunny. They’ve agreed that they should never have loaned me any money. Am receiving refund of just over £4K (interest, 8% interest and removal of all trace from my credit file and writing off of current loan). So pleased. Anybody got any experience as to how long they take to process refunds please?
Lin says
That’s great news bet you are so pleased I took £5600 out over 11 months 34 loans with sunny, do you mind if I ask how much you had with them and how long they took to respond they are being fairly slow with me responding to things .
Claire says
Hi, I borrowed £3351.57 and repaid £6577.93. I wrote to complain at beginning of October and received response from them today (less than 8 weeks). Good luck
Mike says
Hi, thanks for the information guys & girls.
I borrowed 16 times from PDUK, pretty significant amounts too.
Just sent them an email using your template.
I’ll let you know the outcome.
Dani says
Hi guys,
Could do with some advice. I have received a response from QQ via my adjudicator today. They will only uphold three of the six loans the adjudicator advised. The adjudicator believed that they owed me loans 7-12 interest and charges + 8% but QQ have offered loans 7-9 with 8% as they believe 10-12 loans were fair.
Loan 10- as it was paid early (even though I borrowed from wonga to pay off the QQ)
Loan 11- as I paid the same day so paid no interest- again I used wonga and I’m not really arguing this one as i didn’t get charged interest but still shouldn’t have been given the loan
Loan 12- the gap was too long in their opinion although my adjudicator believes they didn’t follow the correct procedures so it was still irresponsible.
My adjudicator believes that the FOS could agree but obviously it is not definite. They are offering £1259 and I thought it would be more like £2000+ as I was unsure how to work 8% out.
What do you think I should do? What are people’s previous experiences?
Dani
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well loan 11 clearly doesn’t matter. Loan 10 sounds unaffordable to me – paying it off early is irrelevant, it doesn’t mean you were suddenly well off! How large was the gap between loans 10 and 11 ? Between 11 and 12?
Dani says
Hi Sara,
The loans were as follows
Loan 10- 29 June 2012
Loan 11- 29 November 2012 I agree this isn’t worth it but still affordability
Loan 12- 30 May 2013 ( 3 installments)
The only reason I am contemplating going to next stage is loan 12 is about £600 before interest added and I started a dmp whilst I was trying to pay this off so it was obvious I couldn’t afford it. I think the adjudicator is confident but obviously he can’t say how the FOS will go and they may find something he missed. I just don’t want to potentially lose an offer of £1259 but then I think they only offered 300 as a good will gesture at the start so is it worth taking it further?
Cheers
Dani
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Forget what they offered at the start – that was just trying to fob you off.
My reaction is that if the earlier loans were unaffordable then QQ shouldn’t have been lending to you 6 months later unless they had done some detailed affordability checks. If you feel your adjudicator is confident, then all you have to lose is another few months?
Coming back to what you wrote, you said “They are offering £1259 and I thought it would be more like £2000+ as I was unsure how to work 8% out.” Have you asked how this amount is calculated? It is definitely worth trying to check payday lender’s figures.
Dani says
Thanks Sara. I haven’t asked them to be honest.
Interest paid :
Loan 7- 180
Loan 8- 248.57
Loan 9- 480
Would the adjudicator know this as I haven’t had any contact with qq. I have spoken to him on the phone and he said the following:
As you will recall, in my view I recommended Quick Quid refund the interest and charges for the loans they gave you between 29 July 2011 and 30 May 2013 (loans 7 to 12). Quick Quid has been in touch to say this disagree with part of my view. They’ve explained they believe the loans on 29 June 2012, 29 November 2012 and 30 May 2013 (loans 10 to 12) were lent to you responsibly because they carried out proportionate checks.
They have however made an offer of £1,259.13 to refund you the interest and charges for loans 7 to 9. This includes 8% statutory interest, which we would normally expect to see in order for the offer to be in line with our guidelines.
Should you choose to accept the offer this will be in full and final settlement of your complaint – and we will close your case once the refund has been paid to you.
As we discussed during our call, I’ve reviewed what Quick Quid have told me about why they feel loans 10 to 12 weren’t lent to you irresponsibly. Having done this my view remains unchanged. This means that should you decide not to accept Quick Quid’s offer I would pass your complaint to an ombudsman to review. In most cases the ombudsman will agree with my view but it’s always possible the ombudsman could come to a different conclusion about your complaint.
Thanks for your help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£1259 looks like a sensible amount for those three loans plus 8%. I don’t think QQ have got this calculation wrong. So it’s just whether the extra loans should be included that matter. As your adjudicator hasn’t changed their mind, I would be inclined to send this one to the Ombudsman. A couple of months wait but could be quite a bit of extra money.
It's laura says
I’ve used your templates to ask for a statement of my accounts for my payday loans with paydayuk & paydayexpress, also to complain about being given unaffordable loans. They’ve replied with their final response today. I had 4 loans and deferred 4 times, they haven’t given consistent full details, they’ve gone into detail on my first loan; how much I borrowed, what date I deferred, how much interest I paid and the settled date; then summarized saying I had 3 more with a further 3 deferrals, that’s it, no more information. Their final decision is that they are unable to uphold my complaint. But I still don’t have a full account statement? And I couldn’t afford the loans as these where to pay other payday loans back (still waiting for Wongas reply). So do i now forward to the financial ombudsman? Thankyou
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you do go to the Ombudsman. 4 loans, and 4 deferrals is a lot of borrowing.
Nigel says
6 year ruling update.
I asked my adjudicator if it was wroth trying to get PDUK & Wonga to now look into the loans for me pre June 2010 bearing in mind that I had already accepted an offer from both of these companies. I went back to the final response letters as particularly PDUK clearly stated they would not be looking into any loans pre June 2010 and stated this in the final response. Well he did not dismiss this initially but took them to the Ombudsman. Sadly he did say that anywhere a letter states a full and final settlement means its just that and The company are not obliged to re look at any older loans. I sort of new this rally anyway but it was worth exploring due to the particular wording in the final response.
Then yesterday I received a call from my adjudicator asking me if I wanted him to re look at my Payday Express and Quick Quid loans and see if they could look into those ones from pre 2010. The only downside would be a significant delay, no times scales but as these two complaints are five and six weeks into a Que to be looked at by the Ombudsman. It could be realistically another 3 months plus to get them back to this stage, mainly due to the overwhelming amount of new complaints that have been coming in and the severe under staffing at this level of the business (short term Lending). So after some thought I decided not to peruse this. However as my 24/7 Moneybox compliant is still partially through an adjudicator investigation, so far so good, this i have taken up the Option for them to take this back to 2008 and all loans I have ever had from them. As before it will drag out the process but its not yet at the stage of ombudsman so I feel its worth taking this all the way. It may be a very long wait.
Ross says
I’ve received this, in an email, from my adjudicator with reference to my Quick Quid complaint;
The cases are being looked into by a specific team, so are moving forward – but I’d be unable at this stage to give an indication of how long exactly it’ll take to be allocated to a specific adjudicator. If you’d like an update, please get in contact with me and I’ll be able to look into this further for you until it’s with a colleague.
So it DOES appear that the FOS have decided that complaints, with reference to loans more than 6 years old ARE being looked at. I have asked my adjudicator to note, on my file, that I was only aware this year that I could make these kind of complaints, hence the reason why it’s taken until now to submit a complaint. That should save the question being asked as to why has it taken this long to complain.
I wait with baited breath, but I know it’s not going to be resolved overnight!
Bobbie says
I came across Debt Camel last week after hearing that payday loans can be refuded if they were given out irresposibily. I looked into it and found this site.
I have sent quickquid, and wonga emails for statements of account and recieved nothing back so I went on online chat to quickquid and asked them for my statements of account. The lady emailed me all of them and i can see that i paid £829.78 in interest over the past couple of years.
Wonga are yet to get back to me so i went through my bank account and could see my payments out to wonga which are over £11K I have emailed them the edited complaint template and told them about my finacial situation, my loanss to them and quickquid and how my income should of been verified etc etc. So i guess it is just a waiting game now.
Anything else i should do?
Neil says
Update from me : my complaint against Wonga is now with an adjudicator. I was offered (from Wonga) a refund for two loans which I declined.
I’ve been asked for bank statements going back a few years which I no longer have – I don’t think I even have records of the account numbers! Most paperwork pre-dating the breakdown of my marriage (ironically a direct cause of that breakdown was the cost of the Wonga loans and the impact they had on our finances) I have lost. Is the adjudicator able to make a decision without this information or will this mean they automatically decide in Wonga’s favour?
Mat says
Hi Neil,
In my case where my old bank was going to charge me per statement, the adjudicator was able to request direct from the bank, I just had to give him my bank details and explain I couldn’t afford to request. Not sure whether that’s common practice but worth a shot. You can.phond the bank for the details, or perhaps you still have them registered with one of your payday accounts.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is normal for an adjudicator to get old bank statements if you no longer have them. If you don’t know the numbers, try contacting the bank and asking. If that doesn’t get you anywhere put in a Subject Access Request. This will cost £10 and can take 42 days, so if you have to do this, explain the Ombudsman what you are doing and there will be a delay until you get them.
Neil says
Thanks for the information – I think a SAR is probably the way to go here.
Neil says
Thanks Sara & Mat. I’m in the process of making a SAR, but my Adjudicator has said that she can see a clear financial picture from my credit report already. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad! She did say however that I may wish to pursue the SAR and not drop it in case either I or Wonga wanted to escalate to the Ombudsman – at which stage they would certainly be needed.
Westley says
Hello everyone.
i started taking out payday loans around march time. Since then I’ve had at least 3 each month from
the money shop, wonga, quick quid,satsuma,a guarantor loan with amigo and a few others. i have a bad gambling problem myself. my bank statements show deposits to gambling websites constantly.
Ive been taking loans out to pay off other loans or even topping/extended loans to cover.
my credit rating is awful (very poor) however i still get accepted for these high rate payday loans. paying the instalments etc off each month leaves me short and means i need to take out more to get by.
i was just wondering if anyone thinks id have a case of compensation or money back and how you would go about it, not the best at these situations to be honest.
I’m just wanting to clear these debts and get back on an even footing.
any feedback would be very helpful
thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can’t complain about payday loan affordability and continue to borrow … so the order you need to do things is
1) get a temporary debt management plan set up to stabilise your finances, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/
2) face up to your gambling problem. If you don’t any money you had refunded would just end up being lost at the bookies in a month or two.
3) then when your money situation is improved so you can amange without borrowing, put in affordability complaints to the payday laenders as the article above suggests.
Westley says
I’ve been taking out loans to cover other loans which then on turn are getting more and more expensive to pay back.
Once one closes or gets paid off (from money using other lenders) I’m easily able to obtain a new one? and with my credit score as it is i see this as irresponsible lending?
my gambling problem is being dealt with. However a payday lender shouldn’t lend if they do take history of loans, amounts etc into consideration?
A long shot of getting any sort of help from lenders, but ill see what sort of information each lender can give me regarding my loans active or paid off in full.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It may well be irresponsible lending. But these complaints take a long while – months – to go through, and when you have put one in, you can’t carry on borrowing some more. That is why I am suggesting a DMP first, then when that is organised look at complaints to the payday lenders.
Craig says
Hi Westley
I’m in a very similar situation, the reason why I have had many payday loans is due to my gambling addiction.
I’ve contacted the companies I have had repeat loans (Sunny, Peachy, lending Stream and Wonga) only Wonga haven’t replied to me yet. Who seem to be a bit of an issue reading some of the comments on here.
I had Wonga loans for over 4+ years and when I’ve gone back through emails it’s really scary stuff, I was repaying loans on payday to then re apply for £1000+ just a few hours later. A quick total shows I’ve had over 50+ payday loans
The comments on here are giving me some hope that I will receive some compensation as this is completely irresponsible lending and like you’ve said it is so obvious where we are putting our money when we are depositing straight into gambling sites. Really do feel I’ll be able to get some closure if I get some money back from these awful companies that prey on the vulnerable.
I first faced my addiction last August when I owned up to my parents I was struggling. Since then I have relapsed 3 times, luckily my parents have bailed me out twice however this 3rd time I am attempting to deal with it myself. They are supporting me through it, but are making me ‘suffer’ and pay interest on my current active payday loans. I’ve gone 48 days without a bet now and I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This is just another step in this and has really given me some hope. I’d love to talk more with you and share pur stories to get through this together.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Craig, good luck with giving up gambling – that is more important to your future than getting any money back from payday lenders! Two things that help some people – GAMBLOCK http://www.gamblock.com/index.html if your weakness tends to be online. And you could register with CIFAS https://www.cifas.org.uk/pr_for_individuals – this makes it a longer procedure to take out any more debt, not impossible, but adds on a few extra days which could be all you need to change your mind.
PD says
Sara
Payday express come back to me to returning all loans after after first 3 so loan 4 – 19 they are offering around 2k, my case is with ombudsman I have calculated on first 3 loans i paid nearly £1.5k in interest is it worth waiting for ombudsman or shall i take the offer?
first 2 were not rolled 3rd one rolled around 9 times as I was paying off £100 a month on £400 loan which cost me £1130.
adjudicator asked them to repay all the loans and its now with ombudsman but they reply in mean time with an offer to adjudicator.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then I would have thought it was worth waiting? Even if the Ombudsman only says to refund from loan 3, that is quite a bit more. The worst the Ombudsman would say is that you should take the amount that has been offered.
James says
Hi
Have you ever heard of a case where Payday UK have paid out, and the case went to the Ombudsman but bank statements were not sent in and so had to assess the complaint with only the credit history?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi James, it has been common for bank statements to be requested but this hasn’t happened in every case. Quite a few cases have been decided without bank statements being involved – I don’t recall if any of those were Payday UK cases. I can’t remember a case for any lender where bank statements have been asked for by the Ombudsman, not produced, which has then been won.
Why are you concerned – are you worried you don’t have the bank statements? Or that you don’t want them looked at because there is something like gambling showing?
James says
Hi Sara
Yes I would have gambling transactions showing, the problem is I earnt quite good money at the time but spend it on drinking, gambling and unfortunately drugs. And very rarely did I have any money left in the bank for the last week until payday, hence me lending the money. So im worried they will see that I actually earnt quite good money and see the loan as affordable.
Many thanks for coming back to me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A lot of people here have had refunds even with a lot of gambling showing on their bank statements.
Andrew says
Hi Sara,
A bit of advise on the following email I got back from Lending Stream would be appreciated. I’m currently in a DMP with Stepchange so there is no ‘active’ loans. these are all being taken care of at the minute.
[edited to remove the standard stuff they say to everyone]
We confirm that you borrowed nine loans from Lending Stream out of which eight loans are closed. Furthermore, loan 2846989 is being dealt via Credit Resource Solutions (can be contacted on 01422 315 214), which has an outstanding balance of £415.96.
At time of loan applications, your Experian scores were ranging from 653 – 859.
Your monthly income at the time of applications was £1270.00 or more
We could observe a sufficient disposable income, which denoted that repayments towards the loans could have been made without any financial difficulties.
Understanding your current situation, we are ready to close the loan account 9999999 on receipt of remaining principal balance £120.40 (Principal borrowed amount – amount paid), thereby waiving all the interest and charges amounting £295.56. To offer further assistance, we are ready to set up an arrangement for the reduce balance.”
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Andrew (don’t put your full name on comments unless you really want it published on the internet!)
LS often quote bizarrely high credit ratings, do those scores sound right to you?
Nine loans is a lot of borrowing – over how long a period were these? Where the gaps between the loans short?
Andrew says
Hi Sara,
The credit rating does sound a bit high to be honest.
£140 03/11/13
£110 31/12/13
£80 02/01/14
£535 08/07/13
£170 03/12/13
£200 06/04/13
£80 05/10/13
Then I sorted myself out, before falling in to the trap again this year.
£350 03/06/16 (this is the loan they are making an offer on, as I still have a balance with them)
Sorry they’re not in order, that’s the way they’re coming up on my loan history.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The July 535 loan was large in relation to your income and I think LS should have investigated at that point, not given you the loan. It looks like a reasonable case to take to the ombudsman, especially if you credit record would have showed late payments or defaults.
Kg says
Hi sara i do have a theory having worked with application software for credit checks. Ls do not look at detailed transactions or reporting from other lenders as it is not in their subscription. As a result this score would only reflect the information brought back which would be a basic high level score. I have seen this where i work where another team doing a check would bring back decisions of accept and ours would be a decline purely due to the subscription to the data.
Hope this helps
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Interesting – but LS’s so called Experian scores often seem to be totally wrong. We have sent people with unpaid CCJs told they scored 600+. Also people with several recent defaults etc.
Kg says
Hi yes this would be wrong because they may only count ccjs in last 1/2/3 yrs depending on the product. Or even penalise on unsatisfied ccjs.
The experian score is only based on the information that appears on their screen and not the full information visible to us.
What i do know, from what they told me, is they did not have access to the payment performance data which details induvidual accounts. I.e. they would not know if you were 2 months behind on your payments with other creditors. If this and other data is omitted then it most likely will bump the score up.
Hope this help,
Kg
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A payday lender can choose to only use some info from a credit record and this may explain the oddly high scores some people are quoted. But that doesn’t mean the lender was “right” to select that information and in particular if the customer has got into a pattern of borrowing every month the lender should be either stop lending or investigate affordability in more detail.
The most important point is that anyone who has their complaint rejected because they are told they scored xxx so it was ok to lend should ignore this. a) you can win a complaint with a good credit score if you borrowed for a long period b) the quoted score may be ignoring important information or could simply be wrong.
Andrew says
Back again
Dear,
This is in reference to your recent correspondence.
We understand that you are not happy with the resolution which we have provided in our previous response. However, we would like to re-iterate that appropriate affordability checks were considered at the time of approval of your loan applications.
Additional Information:
Upon reviewing your accounts, we observed that you contacted us to inform your enrollment with a Debt Management Programme. Also, we received the relevant documents and the necessary changes were made on the account 2846989, thereby freezing future interests and charges.
Resolution:
As informed in our previous email, we are ready to close the loan account 2846989 on receipt of remaining principal balance of £120.40 (Principal Borrowed Amount – Amount Paid), thereby waiving all the interest and charges amounting £295.56. To offer further assistance, we are ready to set up an arrangement on the reduced balance.
We would request you to help us with the following details in case you wish to set up a payment arrangement:
Amount which you would you like to pay every month/week
Date(s) on which transactions should be processed
Preferred mode of payment
Please note:
We are required to report the status of your loan to credit bureaus on a regular basis
Your decision to set up the payment arrangement will reflect in your credit file
If you fail to make the payment, we may transfer your account to a Debt Collections Agency for servicing
Please confirm that you understand and agree to the above mentioned terms.
We consider this as our final response to this matter.
You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge – but you must do so within six months of the date of this email. If you do not refer your complaint in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances. For example, if the Ombudsman believes that the delay was as a result of exceptional circumstances.
This is the reply when I told them I refused the offer, do you think I’m likely to get a better offer if I refer it to the Ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They haven’t added any more information to to what they previously said. I can’t say you definitely will get a better decision from the Ombudsman, but you have had quite a few loans so it’s certainly worth a try.
Craig says
Looking for some help here please people. This is the response I’ve just got from Lending Stream.
———————————————————
Loan Id Borrowed Date Borrowed Loan Amount Loan Status
2371487 6 Jul 2015 300 Closed
2385662 17 Jul 2015 120 Closed
2418497 12 Aug 2015 610 Closed
2655571 2 Feb 2016 250 Closed
2680992 19 Feb 2016 200 Closed
2751873 7 Apr 2016 740 Closed
[standard stuff on affordability checks]
You were full-time employed during the loan applications
Your monthly income was £1400.00 and above at the time of applications
Your Experian score was 720 and above at the time of applications
[standard stuff]
————————————————————————————
There Is no way my credit score was that high. I had various othe payday loans plus 4 bank loans, 3 maxed out credit cards which I was sometimes over the agreed limit and certainly missing payments on them.
Not sure what to do next?? Hope somebody can help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
LS often quote bizarrely high credit score – I would ignore that bit of their reply.
The Aug15 and Apr16 loans – were they installment loans? when were they repaid?
Did LS reject your complaint – the bottom part seemed to have got chopped off.
Craig says
Hi Sara
All of the loans were instalment loans. Although I never ran the full term with them as I borrowed from elsewhere to pay these off early.
Sorry the bottom of the email says:
As requested, we have attached the copy of agreement for each loan along with this email. please note copy of agreements will reflect original borrowed amount.
We hope the above explanation helps you understand the process.
So they haven’t actually rejected it. I think what I should be doing is replying saying I don’t agree with it especially the credit scores they are quoting and that over a 40 day period between July-August 2015 I borrowed 1030 from them
Suzy says
Hi Sara & All
I had a case against TMS upheld by FOS way back in July this year got paid out .thought all was good, part of the FOS ruling was the account is removed from my credit file, i have just sent for a £2 Experian copy of my file- Online , and low and behold TMS entry -Default is still there !
Shall i approach TMS re this or FOS
Has this happened to anyone else ??
Suzy says
I heard from TMS today and they have agreed to delete the default from my credit file -that should of been deleted back in July.
Scott says
Hi Sara,
Just wanted to say massive thank you for this website as without it I wouldn’t have known I could claim anything back!
Started putting in claims end of may. Quick quid, wonga, payday uk and sunny all replied with the standard no. Only quick quid made a small offer of 200 pounds goodwill gesture and others said flat nothing due. Took them all to ombudsman.
Sunny wrote off balance of 300 and refunded about 60.
Payday uk. Adjudicator recommend 23 loans refunded and they offered 19. Was happy to accept at 2800 pounds refund. Due payment by 7th December at latest.
Wonga. Didn’t reply to adjudicator with any info so they recommend refund of all loans after the 1st. Still didn’t reply so passed to ombudsman. In meantime whilst in queue they came back and offered 1090 and refunded all loans after 6th. Quite happy to accept as they already had wrote off 800 balance.
Quick quid still outstanding. Adjudicator recommended refund on 20 something loans. Their first offer was 5. Refused with adjudicator and they came back with offer of 9. Have sent this off for ombudsman decision but it’s on hold as has loans over 6 years so figure as I’m not desperate for the money I might as well wait and go for the whole lot!
Wonga once they’d made their offer were very quick. Emailed there customer service team on Monday with bank details (their offer came though Friday to adjudicator), got a reply saying it would be processed with 5 working days. Money had cleared into my account by Friday of the same week.
Long process but well worth it and I can’t thank Sara and this site enough.
Would like to make a small donation to a charity of your choice Sara so please let me know which?
Thanks again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A donation to your local Citizens Advice would be great. Each CAB is a separate charity. Many of them get most of their funding from the local council and this is being cut back dramatically.
Dan says
Hi
This is going to sound like a silly question so apologies in advance. I have received a letter from the fos requesting statements, credit report etc. I have gathered a lot of evidence to send to them but I was just wondering if I can send everything by email? As of yet the case hasn’t been assigned so there’s no one I can send to directly but just wondering if the generic Ombudsman email address would be ok with my reference in the title?
Thanks :)
Ross says
Hi Dan,
I sent mine to the FOS short term lending email address, with attachments. Just make sure you include your reference in the subject line or in the body of the email.
Tunde says
Hi there, anyone knows about lending stream? I have taken on loans with lending stream and wonga to pay one or the other. Sent the letter for wonga, after my shock to discover that over a 30 month period i used them 24 times and get £5234 in loan. I repayed £6000.34…
All of them are paid now with wonga so whatever they give me back will be great as i want to be payday loan free before end of this year.
But….
No idea what is going on with lending stream. I have had loads of loans from them too.
I did not went to so much dept yet…
Pls help
Many thanks
Tunde
Tunde says
Ita me again…
Not sure why but had no answer yet. I know this site is busy, but since my post i checked that i took pd loan from lending stream over £4000, also took up loans to pay them like 118money and avant credit.
So i have had the greatest shock of my life when i realised it took out over £11000….
So any advice would be appriciated.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think no-one answered because you weren’t asking a very specific question. Lots of people have had refunds from Lending Stream.
Use the template letters above as a starting point and add / delete / amend so it describes what happened to you.
It sounds as though you borrowed a lot from them, so take your case to the Ombudsman if LS reject it or over a small goodwill gesture. If they tell you it was fine to lend as you had a good credit score, just ignore this.
Let us know how you get on … and have a look at the comments here once a week or so so you can keep up to date with how other people’s complaints against LS are going.
Tunde says
Sara, thank u for your help and advice.
I can not yell you how good it feels to see the end of it. My husband was an alcoholic, but thank God he turned the table since august. To be honest i was hoping that we will be able to sort it easily not realising how much we actually owed until reading your comments i started adding them up.
.
Anyway greatful for you and your advice
Tunde
Georgina says
Hi, I had to set up a dmp with Stepchange as a result of my payday lending just spiralling out if control can I still write a letter of complaint. Also Uncle Book were in my dmp and getting monthly payments they pulled out 3 months ago and sold my debt on to a debt collection company hence I know have a ccj the irony is they have now agreed to be included in the dmp so it seems pointless and very annoying that I got a ccj for them to carry on receiving the money they were already getting. I hope that makes sense. Everytime I paid my payday loans back I applied straight away for another one for each lender. ……it takes irresponsible lending to a new level. Has anyone got any experience with provident? Thank you so much in advance I really don’t know what to do I’m frightened if I ask the lenders even though there in my dmp they will issue ccj to me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Georgina,
Yes you can make a payday loan complaint to a lender if you have a debt with them in a DMP. Also if they have sold the debt on to a debt collector – your complaint is still against the original lender.
The exception here is where you already have a CCJ, say for your Uncle Buck loans. Here the Ombudsman will probably refuse to consider a refund on that debt (because it has been dealt with by the court) but you can still win a complaint about your other loans with Uncle Buck that were repaid… so hopefully the refund from that will let you repay the CCJ!
When you start a complaint against a lender they should NOT begin court action against you – that would not be treating you fairly. So far this hasn’t been a problem that people have had.
If you have a debt that has been sold to a debt collector, you should tell the debt collector about the complaint and ask them to stop any enforcement action. Again this hasn’t been a problem in practise.
I should write an article about this because it is a common worry that people have!
Just carry on with the DMP whilst the complaints are going through, some are sorted within 8 weeks with the lender, some take months with the Ombudsman. The more you repay in the DMP, the larger the refund you will get.
Good luck with your complaints, let us know how they go!
MelC says
Hello,
Thought I would give an summary of my QQ complaint (as I experienced the same sequence of events and rough timescales over many months as others have already posted) and finish with a question!
23rd Feb started with a Statement of Account request and on the 14th October received an ombudsman’s decision . I sent the reply form back accepting the decision and was advised on Monday the 24th October that the decision was binding.
QQ contacted the adjudicator on 2nd November requesting I contact them to confirm my bank details and I did so on 3rd November. I also contacted QQ a week later as I was going away for a week in case they wanted any further info and if they had an ETA on refund, I was advised that they have 28 days.
Now for the question, how much longer do I give them as I have had no further contact? Is it 4 weeks or 28 working days from the 24th October i.e. take the weekends out of the count?
Thanks
MelC
A says
I waited 8 working days from signing my settlement form and providing my bank details to my adjudicator re my QQ refund of £1700 and it jreaching my account. I only got awarded on two out of seven loans – but overall I can’t complain’ in terms of amount and timescale. Thanks again to Sara and the contributors of this site. Fingers for success on my other complaints
A
Daz says
I had some success this week Payday Express upheld my complaint and have agreed to clear my balance which is in my DMP and offered me £693 I worked out it was just over £800 so agreed to accept strangely though Payday UK said no even though they are part of the same company and both emails were signed by the same person ? Nothing yet from The Money Shop they are dragging it out and QQ has been sent to the FOS
Marie says
Hi all
I posted a while ago about me launching a complaint with Wonga and waiting for them to respond to my adjudicator.
My adjudicator emailed me last week to say Wonga had finally given him all of the information and he upheld that out of 41 loans, 35 were unaffordable and that I should receive the interest on these plus 8 per cent. He has given Wonga until today to respond.
Can I just ask has anyone been through the same and did Wonga decline the offer and take it up with the Ombudsman for final decision? And if the Ombudsman makes a final decision do they usually go with the adjudicators decision?
This complaint started in June and just feel drained from all of it, Wonga have really dug their heels in and have played a large part in ruining my finances for the past six years. I just want this settled so I can pay off some debt and move on!
Any advice will be greatly appreciated
Marie
Jo says
I’ve recently had a refund from Wonga following an Ombudsman referral. It took around 4-5 weeks after it went up to the ombudsman to get a final decision, which was even more in my favour than the adjudicators opinion. Once the ombudsman gave me the decision I was paid by Wonga within 7 days, directly to my bank account. My complaint started in March! Good luck x
Marie says
Thanks Jo,
So glad to hear that the ombudsman was even more in favour than the adjudicator in your case.
Wonga has responded to my adjudicator with a counter offer, saying that they feel that only 12 out of 41 loans were unaffordable.
I will go to the ombudsman with this, did this happen to you also?
Thanks
Marie X
Jo says
Wonga didn’t respond to the adjudicator in the given time so it was then that it went up to the ombudsman for me.
I would have thought the same will happen in your case.
All the best x
Marie says
Me again!
I also wanted to ask, I’m sure that I saw something on here about making a complaint to Very and Littlewoods?
I have had a Very catalogue for years and have had lots of payment issues with them, particularly because they kept increasing my credit limit.
Could anyone give me advice on this?
Thanks so much
Marie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Marie,
Edited: here is a new article looking specifically at getting interest refunds from catalogue and credit card debts: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/.
Marie says
Thanks so much Sara, much appreciated
Nigel says
I am very on with this. Should have a final response from Littlewoods in nest three weeks. All based on continued raising of Credit limit. £9000 How can anyone use that credit limit and expect to pay £650 back each month! Its flawed.
Marie says
Wow that is absolutely ridiculous, they are serious predators! Hope that you get s great response from them!
Claire says
I wouldn’t hold your breath. I was due a final response last week (had already waited 8 weeks) and have received a letter saying it’s taking longer, etc, etc and is going to be another four weeks.
sarah l says
Hi ive just tried this email address but its coming back as undeliverable. Can anyone help with this?
Morag says
Hi
I sent in a complain but had to do it by telephone, a letter was written to me acknowledging this complaint and now have had a final response!!!
Compensation of £40.00 as it’s taken longer to resolve this complaint and not upheld.
They mentioned a paragraph from their terms and conditions to say that they may vary the credit limit from time to time, you may request us to increase or reduce your credit limit at ant time,and we shall consider such request, but we may agree or decline at our discretion.
Now sent to the fos
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you could try
matt.dixon@shopdirect.com
Lesley says
Right folks give me the low down on payday express… I got the ombudsman final decision on the 10th on November in my favour, but have heard nothing from payday express, do I expect to wait the 30 days or are they quicker at settling haha
Robert says
Try ringing PDE
Jo says
Hi Sara ☺️
So I had a great outcome with the ombudsman who decided in my favour and had Wonga return all interest plus 8% on my loans.
Around the same time I took out just as many loans with Payday UK so I complained to them and they’ve just responded saying they will not uphold my complaint for the below reasons;
“It should be noted that PaydayUK only lent to customers who met with our lending criteria. We rely on customers providing accurate information to us when processing a loan application which will enable PaydayUK to make the appropriate lending decision and ensure all loans are affordable for our customers. The Financial Ombudsman Service has previously confirmed that it is acceptable that a business will act in good faith on information provided by an applicant.
All costs were set out in your loan agreements and you were not obligated to sign these agreements and continue with the loans. A business makes an assessment of an individual’s creditworthiness based on multiple factors using their own commercial judgement concerning lending decisions. This may include information relating to their current situation and employment.
The information provided by you at the time of the applications along with the internal and external checks that were carried out, including credit checks via Experian, indicated the loans were suitable. The information available to us indicated that you could afford your loan repayments.”
I don’t remember having to provide affordability information, or being asked to prove my affordability by sending statements or anything so I don’t believe their checks were thorough enough.
Since the ombudsman decided in my favour with Wonga, can I be confident I should get the same outcome with PDUK?
Thank you so much for what you do here x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I wouldn’t say “confident” – every case is individual. But the fact that you have had a refund for the Ombudsman for loans over this period suggests that other borrowing probably wasn’t affordable so a complaint about Payday UK may very well get a good result. The reply from PDUK contains nothing of interest so far as I can see, it sounds like a standard reply. It is worth putting in your complaint to the Ombudsman that you don’t recall being asked any information about your expenses (if that is correct).
Jo says
Yes I definitely wasn’t ever asked to provide any solid proof of income or expenditure and had they have carried out thorough credit checks they’d have seen I was struggling to keep up with other repayments, and even landed myself a CCJ. I just don’t understand how or why I was ever accepted for loans over this period as I was in such a mess financially. I am going to refer it to the ombudsman and hope for the best, I just wasn’t sure if their email stated anything worth worrying about. I think I probably have income and rough outgoings when I first registered with them and set up an account but don’t ever remember having to provide income and outgoings each time I borrowed after that- and of course over time my financial situation kept getting worse.
Thank you ?
Kg says
Hi all,
Just had my first decisiok regarding pduk and it was ruled all loans were unaffordable. I did think the first loan might not get classed as it however i am chuffed.
Only works out about £800 i think with the 8% interest. But it gives me confident that other loans will come to the same conclusion.
I did have 1 question to anyone there – on my resolution it says to remove any negative information from my credit file. However this is quite subjective as the mere presence of a payday loan can decline a mortgage application.
Has anyone else seen this and does it mean the same as removing all loans from my credit file?
Additionally and importantly, anyone out there with any gambling transactions….do not be put off by making a complaint. It was very much noted i had almost £5,000 worth of gambling transactions over 2 months between loans 2 and 3. This was noted in the resolution letter.
Also does anyone know how to calculate the 8% interest and does date of settlement mean the date complaint was closed?
Regards
Kg
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It usually means that any payday loans deemed unaffordable are deleted from your credit record. In practice loans that were repaid on time are not usually a problem for a mortgage lender if they were more than a year ago, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-mortgage/ and the comments below that article.
For 8% calculations, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/interest-payday-loan-refunds/
Craig says
KG, you’re giving me confidence with my issue.
I have had over 50 payday loans over the past 5 years, and as long as I can remember since turning 18 I’ve had at least one payday loan every month. I am now 23, my cause for payday loans has been gambling and on my transactions it will show I was using a lot of the money for gambling.
It gives me great confidence that I will be able to recover some of the money and get myself back on track quicker than I thought.
How long did the full process take for you to have your complaint resolved? I’m just starting the process and not really bothered about timescales just want to get some sort of closure from these awful companies
Kg says
Hi craig,
To be honest the inital complaint was raised on 09/09/2016 and just got the decision yesterday. Most of the time was taken up with ombudsman because of the request for bank statements etc and i had other loans being referred to them. So it was best to wait until all were with 1 person.
Im glad its given you confidence but you should most definately pursue it. Most likely it will be rejected blaming you for not telling them about your problems or how their score showed it was acceptable but the ombudsman will be fine and non-judgemental.
Sara – i checked with my adjuticator and they said it is removal of late payments/ defaults etc but i did say ive seen other cases where the loans that should not have been issued have had them removed and i would like to request this because i cant see the difference between this and those cases. Lets see what they say
Craig says
Thanks KG seems you got a pretty quick decision over 3 months compared to some others I’ve seen on here.
I’m still waiting to hear back from Wonga, although I’ve gone through emails and between Nov 2011 and May 2014, I borrowed £19,984 and paid £4971.63 in interest! Really scary stuff, one particular date within that period I applied for a loan of £500 and then additional funds of £100, £300, £250, £80 all on the same day within hours of each other. Ridiculous that they were ever accepted.
Have you dealt with Wonga yet?
I’ve had everything back from Sunny/Lending Stream who were the two other main ones I would use.
Has anybody had any luck with bank loans and compensation? I took out separate loans of £2500 & £3000 within 20 days of each other, not sure if it’s something I should pursue.
Kg says
Yeah it was a fairly quick one but that is probably because i received final response letters from all but 1 rejecting it pretty quickly. That 1 happens to be wonga. They offered to refund interest and charges plus 8% for the last 2 loans which took 1 year to clear off. The 2nd loan allowed me to top up 3 days after the 1st loan. I had 10 loans in total throughout 2011. They took the full 8 weeks to reply though.
Ouch thats a fair bit. And that is ridiculous if wonga approved so many on the same day.
Lending stream is one im dealing with too. However im not to confident about that one as its 4 loans but they were smaller installments although the last 2 defaulted. We will see though. Adj said shes close to a decision on that.
All i will say is if it goes to ombudsman be prepared with the bank statements and credit files if you can. Noddle is a good shout or experian if you are a member. Another thing to note will be your salary information and your regular expenses if you can remember it.
Bank loans tend to be harder to pursue in my opinion as generally most have tightened up after the crash however it be worth digging deeper.
Craig says
Thanks KG. I’m still awaiting a response from Wonga after just asking for initial statements of loans. I’ve done this because I know there is some missing from my emails. I’ve had a deeper look though and found more after I posted my comment. Turns out I have 75 loans with them between 2011 and 2016, and 34 of those were top up loans. I sometimes paid these off earlier than my agreed date, which was because I was borrowing from family/friends and other payday lenders. And also because if i was gambling and winning (my original need for the loans) I was paying them off to save interest.
The loans being approved on the same day is just scandalous. I would literally just apply for £100, wait 15 minutes stick it straight on a bet and if it lost re apply just 30 minutes later. I have more confidence that my Wonga ones will be seen as irresponsible rather than my others.
Lending stream replied to me yesterday saying they checked my credit score blah blah but came back with a credit score of 720 which is ridiculous really, no way could it be that high.
I had 7 loans with them in total and started off at 100-200 and eventually raised to 600-700 so maybe I do have a case.
I replied to them anyway saying I didn’t agree and used some of the templates on here so just await a response now.
I have sent Sunny my complaint but have received no response as of yet.
Did you wait for Wonga to send you all your details or log the complaint straight up?
Cheers
Kg says
That is scandalous and tbh you should be ok with that one.
I didnt ask for statement of accounts. I went off my credit file and said at this time my situation was this. That way i could say i had 3 missed payments with other creditors or 2 other loans etc. In the complaint i then said i wamt a statement of accounts of all my loans. I only used them as a guide to figure out what compensation i should get should they make an offer. Thing is i am quite savvy with credit reports now so it was fairly easy for me. In addition i used both noddle and experian to build a picture as some information is present on either report. Currently wonga dont show on experian..they removed all the details a few months back. This will show on noddle though.
When writing these complaints be honest about all your existing debt at each point of loan deferral or opening. Dont be afraid to say you missed pagments on your credit cards etc or the fact you was overdrawn even if was an authorised overdraft.
I wouldnt bothered arguing with ls.their score is rubbish and based on incomplete information. I just asked if that is their final response and as soon as they confirmed it i sent it to Fos. The only one i felt challenging was money shop who claimed they saw my wage slips and confirmed my net salary was 1300 when my wage slips would have shown 250 a week. But im leaving that to the ombudsman.
Joseph says
Good evening,
The Adjudicator upheld my complaint against QQ, who then came back to say they didn’t agree. The Adjudicator has written to QQ confirming that the decision still stands as the info they have given doesn’t change the outcome. What are the chances of QQ accepting the judgement of the adjudicator at this stage? If not, is it likely that the ombudsman will uphold my complaint? Many thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman upholds 90% of adjudicator decisions.
Rob says
Hi
Has anyone had any luck with payday loans that were more than 6 years ago with payday express or paydayuk whereby the adjudicator said they’d consider those loans and either of these companies agreed?
Ross says
Hi Rob,
My adjudicator has come back to me to say that QQ have rejected looking at any of my loans which are 6+ years old. However, this complaint has now been transferred to a specialist team. It’s awaiting being assigned to an adjudicator, so it will take a lot longer (potentially) as my original adjudicator has said he cannot look in to it any further. Although the business is unhappy with the fact that the Ombudsman wants to look in to loans more than 6 years old, I’m unsure who’s going to get the upper hand of the 2. It’s just a case of wait and see. I had a lot of loans more than 6+ years old and this is probably part of the reason why QQ want them discounted as these would make up a hefty amount in the case of it being upheld.
Rob says
Thanks Ross. When did you first log your complaint with the FOS if you don’t mind me asking?
Ross says
Hi Rob,
My complaint was a relatively new one, compared to some on here. I submitted a complaint on 10/10/16 but QQ dismissed the complaint after just 5 hours, so it was sent to the FOS the same day. There was no way possible that QQ could have carried out a thorough investigation in 5 hours and I hope this reflects in both the adjudicator and/or ombudsman’s decision. I have been fortunate, I suppose, in the fact that I haven’t had to wait weeks (or even months) for a final response, so silver lining and all that. I think Sara has a very valid and important point. Back in the day, when people were requesting refunds of bank charges, banks were refunding as a ‘goodwill gesture’ as they were, quite frankly, scared witless of it going to court in case it went in favour of the customer and the publicity it would generate. By the time the supreme court sided with the banks, they’d paid out billions in refunds anyway. It’s probably going to be a case of who blinks first, but I don’t think it will be the FOS on this one!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
FWIW I expect the FOS to win this. They have identified the issue clearly, have considered it thoroughly and given reasons for their decision, keeping the lenders informed. It would be VERY hard to argue that the Ombudsman has made an irrational decision here. And if the lenders want to take this to judicial review, that is a very hard hurdle to get over. Plus lenders won’t want this to go to the courts and lose it – that would mean a lot of publicity for these refunds which so far are not well known.
But by delaying the lenders may be hoping some of the borrowers give in and say Oh just consider the loans under 6 years old.
Rachel says
I still have one claim left with payday U.K. so wonder if my older loans will be looked at. With QQ I was told the fos wouldn’t look at them this was after a few months so I settled, so if the fos change there mind about the 6 yrs does that mean I cant complain for those again?